There are significant differences between all 4 companies. EQIX is
a "carrier-neutral" collocation company. That basically means that
they don't sell their own internet bandwidth. Companies such as IIP
or Level 3 that want to sell bandwidth to EQIX customers either have
to put some type of fiber connection into the EQIX facility or the
customer has to bring in a high-speed connection such as a T3 that
connects to the carriers network. EQIX's business model is selling
colocation space and basic managed services such as tape back-up,
system re-boots, hot hands, etc.

Level 3 is a wholesale carrier that has built a fiber optic network
thoughout the US and some international locations. Their focus is on
selling network capacity to the IIP's, MCI's, AT&T's, and enterprise
customers of the world. They have a Tier One Internet backbone and
they don't sell to small businesses that need T1 service. They are
known as a carrier's carrier.
IIP purchases large Internet connections from all of the major
Internet Backbone providers and uses proprietary technology to route
Internet traffic over the various backbones, thus improving network
performance for their customers. They also sell hardware that allows
customers to get their own Internet connections and optimize their
data traffic over those connections. The Internet is a combination of
thousands of different networks that hand traffic off to one another
as needed so that customer's can send and receive data upon request.
Because the flow of traffic from network to network is loosely
controlled at best, latency sensitive traffic such as VOIP phone
calls, streaming media, etc don't normally fair very well went sent
over the Internet. IIP's patented technology is constantly pinging
the countless routes on the Internet, they are able to control the
flow of data to help it reach its destination much more efficiently.
That is why their customer base is large enterprise clients and huge
web-based customers such as Google, Amazon, etc. If you went to
Amazon, and the pages downloaded a little bit slowly, you may not go
back to the site. IIP's technology helps ensure that end users have a
favorable surfing experience when they hit the site.

SVVS is a little bit of the other three companies. They have an
international backbone, although not nearly as robust a Level 3, and
they also have the former Exodus hosting facilities which they
purchased from Cable and Wireless. Their business model is to sell
next-generation managed VPN's and hosting solutions but I have always
felt that their ideas were better than their execution (I used to
work there so I know first hand). They have one large customer
(Reuters) that probably accounts for 30%+ of their revenue. I believe
that Reuters owns a piece of SVVS so that revenue is pretty secure.
The issue I have with them is that they have never been able to come
close to generating a profit in 10 years of business. They are huge
proponent of the EBITDA smoke and mirrors approach and I don't know
if they will ever achieve profitability (especially with executives
dropping $250k at Scores in a single night). I hope that helps.

By the way, IIP is the best in the business at what they do, bar
none.